What the new Championship format could mean for English rugby 

The Championship announced a rebrand and a new system this week in a promotional video, marking a new beginning for the second tier of English rugby. 

It will be called Champ Rugby under its new branding. 

The league has been criticised in the past regarding promotion and relegation to/from it, and having too much of a gap with the Premiership. 

It felt stagnant, but this rebranding could prove to be the spark that it needs, and it will be in effect from the start of next season. 

Here, Charlie Elliott goes through the changes and what it could mean for the future of England’s second division. 

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The Changes Made 

The first major change is that there will be two extra teams in the league, bringing the number of teams up from 12 to 14.

Newly reformed Worcester Warriors and National 1 champions Richmond will be the two teams added. 

The champions will have the opportunity to earn promotion to the Premiership via a play-off against the top tier’s bottom side. 

Determining the champions will consist of the top six teams having a play-off, with the winner of that being determined the winners of the league. 

There will be automatic relegation to the third-tier National 1 for the 14th-placed Champ Rugby side. 

12th and 13th-placed sides in the second tier will also meet in a one-off game, with the losers playing the National 1 runner-up for the final place in the second tier. 

It looks to be attempting the success seen in the Pro D2 in France, which is widely regarded as the best second tier globally in rugby. 

Simon Gillham, vice president of Pro D2 club Brive, is the chair of the Tier 2 Board, who spearheaded the changes 

What it could mean for the Champ 

Whilst having a new structure for promotion and relegation between the Champ and the Prem is a positive, it still fails to address the problem that most of the teams in the league would be unavailable to be promoted. 

The minimum operating standards are still present, so almost all Champ clubs would have to build a new stadium to be promoted or heavily upgrade their current homes. 

Given that there is still a large gap between the leagues, spending large amounts of money on a new ground for potentially only one season in the top-flight is not seen as a worthy investment. 

Worcester’s introduction into the league means there is an extra team eligible for promotion, with Sixways Stadium having already hosted Prem rugby before the club went bust. 

While changing the system is good for bridging the gap, it fails to address that many teams simply cannot be promoted. 

The Rebrand 

In general, rebranding the name does help to differentiate it from the Championship of football and can be seen as a positive step. 

It is also being branded as somewhat of a development league, with it being referred to as a “Proving ground.” For young players, this could be beneficial and giving the league a real identity should help it grow.

Introducing the play-offs means that there will be a proper end to the season that can get fans from outside the league excited and could potentially boost the prospect of it being picked up by a broadcaster. 

Play-offs will bring more jeopardy and eyes to the sport, which can only be a good thing in growing the exposure. 

Financially, the Prem and Champ are still miles apart, and if the system is to ever truly cater to promotion and relegation, then the second tier needs to increase revenues. 

These changes appear to be for the better overall, but could be futile if the league isn’t properly funded by the RFU. 

By Charlie Elliott

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